EMDR: 21st-century therapy and the possibilities for healing

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) has been so well researched that it is now recommended as a front line treatment for trauma in the Practice Guidelines of American Psychiatric Association, and those of the Department of Defense and of Veterans Affairs. It is an integrative psychotherapy that offers a new and distinct approach to personality development and the treatment of pathology. The clinical applications of EMDR with an information processing focus can be used as a general model of psychotherapy addressing a full range of issues of everyday clinical practice, including family therapy impasses. Increasingly, research evidence is showing that there’s a kind of psychological change that can happen at the level of adaptive information processing, opening up the possibility of powerful therapeutic effects that can exceed expectations both in the speed and depth of their impact. In this presentation, you’ll get an experience of the implicit and associational memory networks that govern our feelings, thoughts, and reactions outside the realm of rational thought. You’ll learn how EMDR and the Adaptive Information Processing model apply not only to trauma, but also to personality disorders, depression, chronic pain, sexual compulsivity, and other dysfunctional behaviors and thoughts. EMDR group protocols will be illustrated that have been used worldwide after both natural and man-made disasters. It is believed that the treatment of trauma through networks of clinicians can aid in breaking the cycle of violence worldwide.

Conference

English

Francine Shapiro

Shapiro, F. (2008, May). EMDR: 21st-century therapy and the possibilities for healing. Presentation at the Academy for Guided Imagery Conference